President Obama woos voters in visit at Strawbery Banke in Portsmouth

Saturday

Sep 8, 2012 at 3:15 AMSep 11, 2012 at 5:29 PM

By JIM HADDADINjhadadin@fosters

PORTSMOUTH — Hoping to carry forward the momentum of his appearance at the Democratic National Convention, President Barack Obama brought a message of middle class prosperity to voters in Portsmouth Friday.

During a speech at Strawbery Banke Museum, Obama appealed to voters to return him to office for another four years, and to renew the optimism that helped carry him to the White House during the last election.

"You were the change," Obama said, repeating a refrain from his convention speech Thursday night in Charlotte, N.C.

Obama said voters are facing the clearest choice between candidates in a generation, and that Democrats are fighting to restore the "basic bargain" that allowed the country's middle class and economy to thrive.

"I don't believe that if you can't afford health insurance, you're on your own; that if companies release toxic pollution into the air that your children breathe, that somehow that's a requirement for economic growth," Obama said to an estimated 6,000 people in attendance. "I don't believe that if you can't afford to go to college, that the best we can do is tell you 'Borrow money from your parents.' That's not who we are. That's not what this country's about."

Obama touched down at Pease Air National Guard Base shortly after noon and traveled by motorcade to the museum grounds. He was joined by Vice President Joe Biden, First Lady Michelle Obama and Dr. Jill Biden.

The vice president was introduced by Sen. Jeanne Shaheen, D-N.H., who called the visiting party from the White House the "fab four."

Biden told audience members the president has shown the courage to make tough calls on areas ranging from education to health care and the Iraq War.

"I know this guy," Biden said. "He has courage in his soul. He has compassion in his heart, and he has a spine of steel."

Obama said it was "not good enough" that private employers created just 96,000 jobs last month but said it will take a "long tough journey" to recover from the recession. His comments came as the government said unemployment fell to 8.1 percent from 8.3 percent in July, largely because more people stopped looking for work.

"We're going in the wrong direction," Romney, the GOP nominee, said earlier. His campaign released a television ad in New Hampshire questioning whether the state is better off under Obama's leadership.

Obama echoed many of the points of his convention speech, telling supporters he needs four more years in office to finish what he started, from bringing troops home to sending more young people to college, and to further implement his vision for the nation.

Obama spoke on a platform in front of the Lowd House, a yellow Federal Period building dating to the early 1800s.

"It's amazing," museum spokeswoman Stephanie Seacord said Friday morning. "The team has set all this up in a week. It's like Santa Claus —overnight, transforming the site."

Friday's event was not Obama's first in Portsmouth. Obama said he has "great memories" of a 2007 trip to the city during his first presidential campaign. The president said Portsmouth stands out in his mind as one of the last places he was able to go for a walk without anyone accompanying him.

"It was a gorgeous day ... and we came right down here," Obama remembered, gesturing toward Prescott Park. "And there was a theater, an improv thing going on. And I sat there, and I think — I might have bought some ice cream."

In the lead-up to Obama's speech Friday, audience members broke out into a chant of "Four more years," during a speech by Democratic Gov. John Lynch, who joined the president on stage after meeting him earlier in the day at Pease.

"New Hampshire is a key to the re-election of the president and the vice president," Lynch said, "and we will again show this nation that New Hampshire knows how to pick the president of the United States."

Friday's event marked Obama's fourth trip to New Hampshire this year, and his third campaign appearance in this pocket of the state since June. Obama had also visited Oyster River High School in Durham and made appearances in Rochester and Windham.

Although New Hampshire will only deliver four electoral votes in November, both campaigns are making a play for the state. The latest polling shows a tight race between Obama and Romney in New Hampshire and nationwide.

In a parallel to Obama's appearance, Romney was scheduled to speak Friday evening at an event in Nashua, according to the Romney campaign.

Portsmouth public schools were closed Friday in anticipation of the Obama event, and a network of roads around the museum were shut down between Thursday and Friday morning. Pierce island was also closed to vehicular traffic. Spectators were being asked to park at Pease International Tradeport and take shuttle buses to the grounds.

The sun was out for Friday's event, which took place in a 10-acre expanse at the museum. Portsmouth Assistant Fire Chief Steve Achilles said at least a half dozen people were treated for heat-related medical concerns during the course of the day. The department provided three triage teams and a pair of ambulances during the day.

"It was a long time, and it got a lot hotter than we expected," Achilles said at about 2 p.m. "Nothing serious."